Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Acquires 2,397 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

by · The Markets Daily

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR – Free Report) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 62,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,397 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $14,296,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of DHR. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Grimes & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 7,390 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.1% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Spinnaker Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 4,304 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on DHR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.76.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Danaher

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $210.14 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The business has a fifty day moving average of $217.92 and a 200 day moving average of $239.26. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $196.80 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.24%.

Danaher Profile

(Free Report)

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services that advance, accelerate, and integrate the development and manufacture of therapeutics; cell line and cell culture media development services; cell culture media, process liquids and buffers for manufacturing, chromatography resins, filtration technologies, aseptic fill finish; single-use hardware and consumables and services, such as the design and installation of full manufacturing suites; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes, and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.

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